On March 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gathered beauticians at his 1,100-room palace as he signed into law an unprecedented emergency decree on hair removal. The rally, “For a beautiful Turkey, of course, yes,” was aired live on television. After speaking for an hour about the upcoming referendum to an audience of meticulously turned-out beauty experts who cheered “yes” for Erdogan nonstop, the president showed the emergency decree to the crowd, and as a group of beauticians circled him on the podium, he signed the decree into law on live television. He also read parts of the law, carefully omitting words such as “hair removal,” but warmly congratulating the women for their dedication.
The hair removal regulation was published in the Official Gazette on March 30 and went into effect immediately. In a nutshell, the emergency was to grant beauticians the right to operate certain tools to perform laser hair removal.
